Contact: The Aztecs and the Spaniards

             Contact: The Aztecs and the Spaniards
             The Spaniards landed on the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico in 1519, where they where amazed to find the advanced society of the Aztecs. The Aztec Empire stretched along the Valley of Mexico, and Tenochititlan was the capital. The Aztecs were a powerful tribe; they were always conquering many other small tribes. They built amazing cities and had a powerful army. The expansion of the Aztecs, however, ended when the Spanish took over. The Spanish conquest of the Aztecs in 1521, led by Hernando Cortes, was a victory that was a big deal for all European settlers.
             After the Spanish Conquest, there appeared to be two major disadvantages for the Aztecs because of contact with the Spaniards. The first was the huge reduction in the size of the Aztec population because of a lot warfare and especially because of disease. The Spaniards had the so-called "gruesome advantage" of disease because they carried many European illnesses that the Aztecs were not immune (resistant) to. It is estimated that half of the Aztecs died of now a-day minor diseases like small pox and measles. The second disadvantage was a long and very slow process of having to change from their way of living to European ways of living. Sometimes the Aztecs were forced into adopting European ways, but other times, they borrowed European technologies that were useful to them.
             There were some minor advantages for the Aztecs from the contact but the Spaniards received the great majority of the benefits of conquering the Aztec Empire. These minor advantages were that the Europeans introduced new technologies, crops like grains and fruits and domestic animals like horses, sheep, cattle and pigs to the Aztecs and the Aztecs could add these new things into their own culture even though they where under Spanish ruling. Another thing that happened after they conquered the Aztec Empire that could be considered a disadvantage to...

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Contact: The Aztecs and the Spaniards. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 13:22, March 28, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/79658.html